Sly Cooper: The Inside Man
by 54333yi
Summary: 6 months after Sly's disappearance, Bentley gets a signal as to where Sly is. So the gang is round up to go find him, including a new member, Eric Weasel, the gang's "inside man" of Interpol. But is Eric trustworthy? Or is he more than an 'inside man'. Rated T (Inconsistent Gore, Violence, and Death of Characters) *I do not own Sly Cooper or any trademarks associated with it,*
1. Round-up The Gang

ACT I

Chapter 1: Round-up the Gang

The laboratory was dark, cool, and damp. Scattered around the floor were blueprints of weapons, gadgets, and modifications that would never be created. The television was on, but nobody was watching it. Bentley, the owner of the lab and former Cooper Gang member, was at a desk scattered with empty papers and history books.

Also on the desk was a large monitor showing Kaine Island, the location of the Cooper family's fortune worth millions. Over the past months there have been attacks on the island, obviously trying to get at the treasure. Bentley had gone there dozens of times updating and repairing the security. But one thing was certain, whoever was doing it knew exactly what they were doing.

It had been over 6 months since Sly's disappearance, but it still felt like it was only the day after. Confused, Bentley turned toward a wall covered with postcards with the symbol of Penelope, former Cooper Gang member and Bentley's Ex. Penelope had broken out of jail about 3 months ago, and ever since, Bentley has been getting strange postcards from her. One of the little street cafe they would visit every day, another from the park where they shared their first kiss.

As these memories flooded back to him, Bentley turned toward The Thievius Raccoonus, a book that held all the secrets of the Cooper family line. Bentley was studying it in his free time. Bentley was also checking it constantly for any sign where Sly was, or if he was alive. As all this grief was hitting him all at once, there was a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" he said.

"Eric."

"Oh, come on in." Bentley said with one glimmer of light in the world.

Eric Weasel walked into the room. Eric was a tall slim weasel. Over the 6 months of Sly's absents, Bentley had found Eric while going to visit Carmelita Fox at Interpol. Eric had pulled Bentley aside, into his office. There, Eric told Bentley about his secret job of being thieves' inside man. He had this job at Interpol just to keep the current thief updated on his noticeability at Interpol. Eric exclaimed about how it would be his dream to work with the Cooper Gang, and how he could keep the cops off their back while Bentley and Murray searched for Sly. Bentley willingly accepted the offer.

"Have you found anything about Sly?" asked Eric.

"No I haven't" Bentley said. As if on cue, the alarm on the casing of The Thievius Raccoonus went off.

"What's going on?" Eric exclaimed.

"Someone is tampering with The Thievius Raccoonus again."

Bentley wheeled over to the case and took out the book. Bentley opened the book to the tampered page, the page of Slytankhamen Cooper, Sly's ancestor from Ancient Egypt. Bentley took a moment to read the new material. He turned off the alarm, and turned back to Eric with a large grin on his face.

"Eric, round-up the gang"


	2. The Championship

Chapter 2: The Championship

His coach was yelling at him, telling him that he needed to do the best he can, or else he would lose the championship.

"Don't worry coach, _The Murray_, has everything under control. He'll be eating his teeth before the first round is over."

"Good. Because you have won every match so far, and I would hate for your first lose to be the Grand Championship" said Murray's coach. He left the locker room, leaving Murray all alone in the dark, run-down locker room.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see someone entering the locker room. Murray turned around and punched the mysterious stranger. The man fell to the ground and Murray jumped on top of him.

"Who are you and what do you want from me?" yelled Murray.

"Murray! Stop!" cried Bentley rolling into the room.

"Bentley? Bentley! How I missed you." Murray ran up and gave Bentley a tight hug. Bentley started struggling for breath, realizing that he was squishing his best friend, he put Bentley back in his wheelchair. "Wait, you know this guy?" motioning to the man on the floor.

"Yes! That's Eric, He's helping us find Sly." Bentley said. Eric slowly got up and held his bloody nose.

"Sorry, _The Murray'_s fists are made to sense when there is possible danger, they know not friend or foe, just destruction."

"Eric is our 'inside man'." Bentley said

"An inside what?"

"An inside man, someone who works undercover for somebody. Eric here is in Interpol, and he's making sure Interpol isn't in our tail."

Eric's nose had finally stopped bleeding, he turned to Murray and said "Bentley and I were planning on taking you after the fight, talking to and, hopefully, pick up Carmelita. Then we were going to save Sly. Does that work?"

"Wait, you guys know where Sly is? Screw the championship, I want to see my best friend again!"

"Are you sure Murray, you've worked a long time to get this." Bentley said.

"T_he Murray_ is always sure"


	3. The Dark, Strange, Oddly-Familiar

Chapter 3: The Dark, Strange, Oddly-Familiar Silhouette

Bentley and Murray were in front of Carmelita Fox's office window, well it was 3 stories up. Eric was currently in his office, making sure everything was going to plan, if Bentley was notified within 5 minutes, the plan would be cancelled. Fortunately, everything was going to plan. Murray set-up the ladder and grabbed Bentley and his wheelchair. Murray grunted as he climbed each rung of the ladder, until he got to the window. Bentley peered into the window and gave Murray the thumbs up, Carmelita was in her office. Bentley knocked on the window, Carmelita jumped up and pointed her shock pistol at the window. Realising it was Bentley, she opened the window.

"Bentley, what are you doing here? I could get fired if they catch me!" said Carmelita

"That can wait, pull me in, I think Murray is getting tired" said Bentley. Carmelita helped Bentley in and closed the blinds on the windows out to the halls, then Murray crawled through the window, flopping on the ground panting.

"Bentley, why did Murray carry you up? Don't you have a booster?" asked Carmelita, watching Murray hyperventilate on the floor.

"I do, but it's not high enough to get to the window."

"So what are you doing here?"

"We are here to see if you would like to go with us to save Sly"

"You found him?"

"Yes"

"Where?"

"Ancient Egypt, with his ancestor Slytankhamen"

"I will go with you, now you need to go before..." Carmelita looked at the window and saw a silhouette of a man with his ear to the window "Wait, someone's there." The silhouette ran away, by the time Carmelita got out the door, the person was long gone down the hall.

"You guys need to go now! I'll go to the hideout once I'm done here." Carmelita finished. Bentley and Murray went out the window, and Carmelita plopped down at her desk. Who was that strange person, what did he know, and what was he planning on doing with that information?

About half-an-hour later, as Carmelita was putting on her coat to leave, her boss knocked on and opened the door.

"Carmelita, you got a minute?" he asked, he had a strange vibe coming from him, Carmelita didn't like where this was going.

"Yes, yes I do." She said reluctantly. He walked in and closed the door behind him.

"It has come to my attention that you have been assisting a group of thieves."

"Well, the REAL story is.."

"I don't want any made-up stories now Miss Fox" he sternly said. That was Carmelita's indication of what the conversation was going to end up being, he never called her Miss Fox, always Inspector Fox.

"I'm sorry boss, it's just that..."

"Look, I don't want to know why. Now, you know what has to happen, hand me your keys" she did, "hand me the badge" she did, "and give me the shock pistol." Carmelita began to give him the shock pistol until something snapped.

"NO!" she yelled as she shot her boss. He was flown back onto the ground. Stunned at what she had done she began to run down the halls. Was he dead? Did she just kill her former boss in a fit of rage? She eventually got to Winthrop's office.

"So Carmelita, I was wondering if you and I could go to..." he started.

"SHUT UP WINTHROP, I never liked you and I never will" Carmelita exclaimed, she shot Winthrop with the shock pistol, knocking him unconscious. The alarms started to screech, telling all personnel to seize Carmelita Fox. Carmelita ran down 3 flights of stairs until she eventually reached the ground floor where she ran out the fire escape doors and into the street. She decided to run instead of taking her car, the police were right behind her. They got closer and closer, she was one block away from the hideout. She pulled out her phone and dialed Bentley.

"Start the van now, and prepare for a tight getaway." She said

"On it" said Bentley. Carmelita could hardly hear him from all the sirens blaring right behind her. She slammed open the hideout's door. Bentley started the time machine while Murray started the van. "Get in Carmelita, hurry." Carmelita jumped in and slammed the door shut. Murray floored the gas and Bentley pressed the big red button. The van jumped into the wormhole and started going through time. Carmelita looked up and saw Eric.

"Eric, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"Um... heh... well... it's kinda a funny story." he said reluctantly, he knew what just happened to her and figured that seeing him with the Cooper Gang might piss her off, more than she was now.

"Well, we've got time." Carmelita said, with a little sass in her voice. Eric sighed and began to tell the story.


	4. Sly?

Chapter 4: Sly?

It was a long story. Eric managed to get every little detail into the story, it was his idea of stalling. But he just ended with a unnecessarily detailed story. He figured that Carmelita would get angry and start to argue with him. But once the story was done, she sat in her seat silent. Nobody dared to say a word to her, they were all afraid that they would say the wrong thing. Especially Eric.

Eric felt guilty, he didn't want to show it, but it was written all over his face. His office was on the same floor as her's, he should of kept a watch on it. Plus the fact that he was doing what Carmelita got fired for. He wondered if she had a grudge for him. Would she tell the boss once they got back to the present? He would loose his career of being an inside man. Eric knew he had to make it up somehow.

The van had finally landed in Ancient Egypt. Sand as far as the eye can see, with a small civilization in front of large pyramids and the sphinx. Bentley pulled out his binocucom, and tried to connect with Sly.

"Sly? Sly? Are you there?" he said.

"Ben...is...you?" Bentley could hardly understand what Sly was saying, but he still could tell by the voice that it was Sly.

"Sly? Where are you?"

"I'm... -rmids"

"Sly, go to the sphinx, we'll rendezvous there."

"On it." Bentley had closed the binocucom and put it in his pocket. He turned to the team.

"We're going to meet Sly at the Sphinx"

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Murray yelled. As they walked they each wondered how Sly would react to them, especially Eric. While the other members have known Sly for most of their life, except Carmelita, but they love each other. Eric was the new person that Sly didn't know. Bentley reassured him that Sly would like him, but Eric knew that Sly has had a history of disliking people that the other gang members liked. Eric traveled at the back of the group, to make sure he was seen last. As they got closer to the sphinx, a mysterious man leaped out of nowhere and grabbed Eric, Eric let out a quick yelp. Bentley, Murray, and Carmelita quickly turned around, as Sly ran out.

"Guys, look out." Sly yelled as he joined the mysterious man. It took Bentley a moment to realize what was happening, but eventually he put the pieces together.

"Sly! Sly! Stop, he's with us!" Bentley yelled. Sly looked up and told the man to stop. Sly helped Eric up, he was dazed at what just happened.

"Talk about first impressions." Eric said.

"Who is this guy?" Sly asked.

"He's Eric our 'inside man'." said Bentley

"Inside Man?"

"He works for us, he is in Interpol, he tells us about what is going on there."

Sly took a moment before finally saying, "Alright." If Sly was actually okay with Eric was anybody's guess.

"Who's the person with you?" Murray asked.

"He's my ancestor, Slytankhamen." Sly said. "Slytankhamen, this is Bentley..."

"Pleased to meet you."

"this is Murray..."

"Hey there."

"And this is Carmelita." Carmelita was about to say her greeting, but Slytankhamen interrupted her.

"This one is the love of your life?" he asked. Sly turned towards Slytankhamen, he wasn't expecting him to say that. Carmelita blushed a little. I mean, it wasn't a secret. "Here, let me show you my hideout." he continued.

"We would love to see you hideout but we really need to take Sly and head back to the present." Bentley said.

"Why?" asked Sly.

"Someone has been trying to break into the cooper vault, and we have to find out who." Eric said.

"Alright, let's go." Sly said. Sly said his farewell to Slytankhamen, and the five of them left. As they were walking away Slytankhamen said to himself:

"A Cooper vault, that sound like a great idea"


	5. Arrival

Chapter 5: Arrival

The ride home felt as short as can be, for Sly, Bentley, and Murray. They had been separated for six months, and that felt like the longest time. The three pals talked about their experiences, such as Sly trying an expensive Wine that Slytankhamen had stolen from a greedy pharaoh, or Bentley almost destroying the lab trying to make a small adjustment to the time machine. Carmelita was happy to see Sly again, but still on edge about her previous incident. And Eric had a feeling that he was going to need to prove himself to Sly.

The van finally landed in front of the hideout, Bentley looked at his watch and shocked to see that the trip had only taken 3 hours. Carmelita quickly got out of the van, Sly shortly followed her.

"Carmelita, are you okay? You haven't said a word the entire trip." Sly said.

She turned to him angrily and said, "I'm sorry, I've just been fired from my job! Because of these bozos!" She motioned to Bentley, Murray, and Eric as they were getting out of the van.

"I'm sorry." Sly responded.

"Why are you sorry, you're the one that's been gone for 6 months, you had nothing to do with it!"

"I'm sure they were meeting you to talk about me." said Sly. As this argument grew louder and more intense, something in the distance caught Eric's attention. It took him a few moments to see what it really was through the Paris night sky. He eventually saw it, 3 purple, windowless vans. It stopped and let out a few goons. All of them were pointing their way.

"Well you know what ringtail, you are a huge piece of-"

"RUN!" Eric yelled. Everyone turned to see the goons running after them. They all started running away. They started getting closer and closer to them. Carmelita was exhausted from all the running she did a few hours ago, she was running at the back. The goons eventually got to her and tackled her. She let out a scream.

"Carmelita!" yelled Sly. A few of the goons handcuffed her and threw her in the back of the van, the rest continued to chase the Cooper Gang. Someone had to distract the rest of them.

"You guys go, I'll hold them off." yelled Eric.

"Eric, there are too many of them" said Bentley.

"They want you three, you can't be caught by them. Let them take me" said Eric. Without letting anybody refute this action, Eric stopped and started fighting the goons. He managed to hit all of them, it was only seconds until they were all on top of him. They handcuffed him and threw him with Carmelita. The goons looked back right as Sly, Bentley, and Murray turned a corner.

"It's no use, they're too far away." said one of the goons. They closed the van doors and got into the other two vans. They all drove off. The Cooper Gang looked around the corner to see the vans gone. Disappointed, they all looked at each other, they didn't know where they were going, or who was doing this. They all knew it was the person trying to get into the Cooper Vault, but who?

Inside the van, Carmelita was worried where they were going. Eric, however, seemed calm, almost as if he knew where they were going. Carmelita turned to ask Eric why he seemed so calm, but before she could a loud hissing noise started. After a few seconds Carmelita and Eric were knocked out, it was knock-out gas.

After an unknown amount of time, Eric finally woke up. He was strapped onto a table. He was confused, where was Carmelita? He looked up and saw a strange figure, "Who's there?" The shadow move into the light. Eric smirked and said:

"Hello... Penelope."


	6. Put The Pieces Together

ACT II

Chapter 6: Put The Pieces Together

Sly, Bentley, and Murray were scattered around the lab, they were all looking for something to tell them where Carmelita and Eric were. There seemed to be nothing, no clues left on the street, no signal as to a relative location, they were lost.

"It's no use, we've touched almost everything in this entire area." said Bentley.

"We can't lose hope, what is the one thing we haven't touched?" asked Sly.

"The postcards from Penelope. But there is no use for those."

"Well, are they in any kind of order?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, are they where they are on a map."

"I don't get it." exclaimed Murray.

"You mean, put all the places on a map and see if they lead to where Eric and Carmelita are being kept?" asked Bentley.

"Sure." said Sly. Bentley wheeled over into the back room and found his projector. He came back out and set it up with a map of Paris. He started putting the postcards on their location on the map. They started lining up, the postcards were showing them where Penelope was hiding. Bentley had to make the map larger, until it was the entire map of France. It lead them seemingly to a small open space to the North East of where they currently were. They loaded the van and headed to the estimated spot.

The four and a half hour drive was mostly flawed plan ideas. They didn't know how huge the building was, or how fortified it was, they just had to guess off of what they knew of Penelope's technological skills.

"It couldn't have been that easy, Penelope was too smart for that. The only way that she would have made it that easy was if she wanted us to find her" Bentley thought.

"So how did you find Eric?" Sly asked.

"Well, it was about 5 months ago, and I was going to visit Carmelita. While I was walking down the hallway, Eric pulled me into his office, and told me about what he does, and I ?" Bentley said.

"He just seems a little suspicious. Like what if he's interpol's inside man for us?" Sly asked.

"Sly, trust me we can trust Eric." Bentley said.

"Okay" Sly said. Bentley knew that the idea of an inside man would upset Sly, but Bentley was planning for a better way to introduce Eric in Egypt.

They finally got to Penelope's hideout, and what they saw exceeded every expectation they had, getting in would be tougher than they thought.


	7. Where am I?

Chapter 7: Where am I?

Carmelita lazily woke up in a small cell. The knock-out gas had given her a headache. When she was able to sit up she saw herself in a small metal bed, like the ones they used in the prison. A few feet away was a small sink next to a small toilet.

"If they expect me to go in that thing they have another thing coming" she thought out loud. She looked for a way out, but the walls, floor, and ceiling were made of concrete, probably at least a foot thick. Also, there were two burly guards guarding the door, they looked like the goons that had taken her and Eric. Speaking of Eric, where was he. She assumed that he was in another cell.

Great, just great. Yesterday she was fired from a job she had for many years, and now she was in a prison for who knows how long, in who knows where, by who knows who? She started getting angrier as she thought about the given circumstances. She just wanted to get out and get her job back, and be with Sly. Carmelita heard someone knock on the bars, Carmelita turned to see Penelope.

"Penelope?" she said.

"Hello, sweetie" Penelope replied.

"Are you behind this?"

"Darling, I'm behind everything that's happened"

"You mean to tell me you were the one at my window that got me fired!"

"Not me personally, it was one of my workers"

"Where's Eric?"

"In my lab, for a sweet guy, he has a strong brain."

"What do you mean?"

"It's hard to break him."

"What are you trying to get out of him?"

"Oh, nothing you would care about, now speaking of Eric, I need to get back to torturing him."

"Get back here you stupid mouse!"

Penelope slowly turned and walked away, leaving Carmelita alone with the guards patrolling her door. Once Penelope left the room and the door was locked behind her, the guards turned towards Carmelita.

"Sly? Murray? What are you guys doing here?"

"We're here to break you and Eric out." Sly said. Bentley wheeled out from behind a corner and hacked the jail door. It opened. Carmelita ran out and hugged Sly.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you last night." Carmelita said.

"Last night? It's been a month." Murray said.

"Oh, well when you're sprayed with knockout gas, there's no real way to tell time."

"Come on let's go" Sly said. They all walked out the door and ran down the hall until they got to lab. They opened the door. The lights were off except a spotlight on Eric, he was strapped to a metal table. The four of them ran towards him. But the lights flicked on to reveal they were surrounded by guards. Penelope stood on a large mechanical device. She began to chuckle.


	8. The Truth is Revealed

Chapter 8: The Truth is Revealed

"Le Paradox was right, you guys are predictable." Penelope said.

"What are you doing here? What do you want with Eric and I?" asked Carmelita.

"It's not you I want, it's Eric. It seems he still owes me a little favor." responded Penelope.

"What?" They all said, turning to Eric.

"What kind of favor?" asked Bentley.

"Don't worry about it." Eric replied.

"Oh you all should definitely worry about it," said Penelope, "Since it has to do with the Cooper family fortune."

"You're the one that's been trying to break into the Cooper Vault?" asked Bentley.

"Yes, and I couldn't have done it without a little assistance." said Penelope, motioning to Eric. The Cooper Gang was too shocked and confused to speak. "I see you are confused, let's have Eric tell you the story."

Eric let out a sigh and began.

"It started when Penelope had gotten out of prison, I was in my office, looking for someone to be an Inside man for. Then somehow Penelope had gotten the news of me being an inside man, and she came to me. She laid down a large roll of money and asked me to be her inside man, I accepted. She told me to go to her hideout and she'll give me directions of what to do there. So I went to the hideout, and she told me about how she left the Cooper Gang to be the best scientist in the world. She told me the only way to do that was to get at the fortune inside the Cooper Vault. She told me about her fail attempts to get inside after Bentley changed the password. She told me to do everything I could to be the Cooper Gang's inside man. I knew I would have to gain Bentley's trust, which wasn't hard at all. Bentley eventually gave me the password, but in gaining his trust, I saw the hurt that he was feeling after losing Sly for 6 months. I couldn't bring myself to give Penelope the code until you found Sly. But the sign in the Thievius Raccoonus was exactly what I needed.

"I knew throughout this entire process that I couldn't get found out about my usual absence from Interpol, even though I never worked there, which meant getting Carmelita fired. So when Bentley and Murray planned to visit you, I figured that it would be the only time that I could get rid of you, although I never knew you would react the way you did. I waited outside your office window until I could hear Bentley and Murray in your office. Once you noticed me I knew I would have to get out of there quickly so I ran down the hall and hid the first office I could find. I waited 'til you weren't looking and continued to the boss, I told him that I was walking by your office and I heard Carmelita talking with the Cooper Gang. I told him to keep me anonymous, I didn't want you to know it was me.

"I got nervous while we were in Egypt, I knew that I had been keeping the code far too long and Penelope was bound to come looking for me. So once we got back, I had to keep a sharp eye out for anything Penelope related, so when I saw the vans I had to let you guys know, so that Penelope would only get me, but Carmelita eventually got caught by the goons and I knew Sly would want to be with her, but I couldn't let you do that. So I came up with excuses to let them take me, so I could give Penelope the code. But when you guys started saying that you'd go for me I felt like I couldn't give Penelope the code, and now here we are." He turned towards Penelope, "is that what you wanted to hear?" The Cooper Gang was silent, Eric had betrayed all of them, especially Carmelita. Bentley, Murray, and Sly stood there angrily, while Carmelita walked away, she was angry, Eric knew that she wanted to beat him up, but thankfully, Penelope wouldn't let her, Eric had too much valuable information that Penelope needed.

"Absolutely." Penelope responded, "Now, Cooper Gang, now that you heard his story, I want to give you a choice. I will let you four out with no problems, but you can either take Eric with you guys and have me chasing after you to get Eric, or leave him here with me and risk me getting inside the Cooper Vault." The Cooper Gang thought about it.

"We should leave him behind." Carmelita eagerly said, "we can always change the password if Eric reveals it."

"Exactly." Penelope said with a evil smile on her face. Penelope opened the door to the outside of the lab, the Cooper Gang started walking towards it. Sly, Murray, and Carmelita had walked out the door, but Bentley paused, turned around and said, "Sly was right, you couldn't be trusted."

"I don't blame you." Eric said. Bentley left out the door, and the door closed behind him. Penelope turned to Eric.

"Are you ready to give me the code?" she said.

"No matter what you do to me I won't give you the code." Eric replied.

"Have it your way... Guards."

The guards ran towards Eric, and within seconds they were all upon him.


	9. One Year Later

ACT III

Chapter 9: One Year Later

A year had passed since the Cooper Gang had left Eric behind at Penelope's hideout, they wanted to say they forgot about Eric, but they all knew he was in the back of their mind. Over the years they had visited the Cooper Vault at least four times a months to check on the security and treasure. There were attacks on the vault, obviously by Penelope, but they never got passed the code door. They knew Eric hadn't given her the password, but just to make sure they Bentley changed the password every time they were there.

Carmelita had tried to find another job in a police force, but nobody would hire her, she ended up getting a job in a small family business where she managed to make less than minimum wage. She eventually had to sell her apartment and move in with her parents. After six months of living with her parents, she grew sick of them. She eventually moved in with the Cooper Gang.

The Cooper Gang were in the Paris Airport to fly to Peru. From there they would take a boat to Kaine Island to check on the vault. As they were walking to the gate where the airplane going to Peru was they noticed a woman following unusually close behind them. She had a long casual dress on, and her hairstyle managed to cover up most of her face. She started trying to pass the Cooper Gang, but eventually tripped over somebody's luggage. As she fell she screamed, but the scream seemed strangely masculine. The Cooper Gang turned towards her to help her up and hopefully see her face. Something about her made the Cooper Gang suspicious. As they helped her up, she managed to keep her hair in front of her face.

The woman started to walk away, but the Cooper Gang stopped her.

"Hey lady, what's your name?" Sly asked.

"Helen" she responded.

"Hey Carmelita, didn't you say you needed to go to the bathroom, why don't you take Helen with you?" Sly asked.

"When did I say I needed... oh... yes, lets go." Carmelita said. Carmelita threw her arm around Helen's shoulder and grabbed her. Carmelita took Helen into the woman's restroom and locked the door. Carmelita threw Helen on the ground and cautiously checked all of the stalls... they were alone. Carmelita ran to and jumped on Helen.

"Alright, you have two seconds to tell me who you are!" Carmelita yelled. Helen struggled a bit before kicking Carmelita off her. Carmelita was flown back. Helen began to run for the door, but Carmelita grabbed her. Desperately, Helen punched Carmelita, knocking her off her feet. Once again, Helen ran towards the door as Carmelita slowly got up. Carmelita ran towards Helen and grabbed her again. But before Helen could react, Carmelita threw her into a nearby metal shelf of supplies, such as toilet paper and extra soap. Helen laid there, she was knocked unconscious, Carmelita threw Helen over her shoulder and exited the bathroom.


	10. Hello Again

Chapter 10: Hello again

Helen lazily woke up. She was tied to a chair in a dark room. She looked around desperately looking for a way out. She looked forwards and saw the Cooper Gang. She figure that she was in their hideout. Carmelita had a few bruises from their fight the day before.

"Alright, let's see if 'Helen' is really who she says she is." Sly said, with his hand on Helen's hair. Sly slowly pulled off the wig to reveal a very familiar face.

"Eric?" the Cooper Gang said in unison.

"Hello again..." Eric replied. The Cooper Gang grabbed their weapons and aimed them at Eric. "Don't worry I don't work for Penelope any more." Just to be sure, Bentley scanned Eric, there was no communication devices anywhere.

"Uh Eric, why are you wearing a dress?" Murray asked.

"Well it's a long story..." Eric started hesitantly, he waited for a moment to see if the Cooper Gang would stop him, but they were silent, "right after you guys left, Penelope immediately started trying to get the password out of me. Her main idea to break me was torture, everyday she used a different tactic to try and get the code out of me. It was either her guards beating me up, or trying out her new weapon. Some of her weapons shot lightning, while others messed with your mind.

"Every time I was close to saying the password I would say a completely made up password. She would send some of her men to try and get into the vault but ultimately fail. Each time I gave her an unsuccessful password she would get madder and the weapons would get more aggressive.

"After about 7 months of dealing with this torture I knew I was going to need to bust out of that place, but I didn't know how. So one day as Penelope was torturing me, I waited until Penelope was dragged aside by her partners to talk about future plans and I started pretending to struggle, a guard came over to me and told me to stop. As he was walking away I managed to grab his keys, I silently unlocked myself while the guard was walking away. I snuck up behind him and hit the back of his neck, killing him on the spot. I put on the guards clothes and ran out the door. I had managed to out of her place before Penelope had realized that I escaped. As I walked out of the main doors I heard a siren go off and the main gates shut right behind me.

"I walked for a few days before I came to a nearby town. While I was walking I knew that Penelope would be after me, but I was worried that Penelope would be after you four too. She had always had the idea in the back of her mind that the vault password was changed so I figured it was only a matter of time before she was going to go after you guys too. Anyway, once I got to the town I changed my look completely. I figured that the only way to make me seem different was to be a girl. So I got this dress and that wig.

"Just to make sure that Penelope would never find me I decided to get a plane ticket to Canada. While I was in the airport I managed to accidently get behind you four. I tried to go around you four without looking suspicious, but that stupid piece of luggage was there. Once Carmelita took me into the bathroom I knew I had to get out of your hands. If Penelope did find you guys or me, I didn't want her to find all of us." Eric suddenly became sleepy and fell asleep. His head gently relaxed on his left shoulder revealing a tranquilizer dart. The Cooper Gang gasped, and turned towards the source of the dart. They had left the balcony doors open and there stood Penelope's goons and a new member, Winthrop.

"Looks like we go them." said Winthrop.

"Winthrop?" asked Carmelita, seeing as she was the only one that knew who he was.

"Guess Eric's not the only 'inside man' in Interpol, is he?" Winthrop sarcastically remarked as he pointed the gun at Carmelita

"What are you doing, I thought you loved me?"

"Loved you?!" Sly exclaimed.

"Well you know what they say... Keep your friends close, and your enemies closser." Winthrop remarked. He shot the dart at Carmelita but she moved just in time and dodged the dart. "GET THEM!" The goons and Winthrop ran towards the Cooper Gang. The two groups began to fight. Some of the goons tried to get Eric, who was sleeping, tied to a chair, in a dress, but Bentley and Murray managed to get Eric back. Even though the Cooper Gang was vastly outnumbered, it looked like they were going to win the fight.

After a seemingly endless battle, Winthrop finally yelled a call of retreat, and all of the goons got back in their helicopters and vans and drove off. Unknown to the Cooper Gang, Eric had been awake for a few minutes.

"We have to stop Penelope." Sly exclaimed.

"And I think I know how." Eric said. The rest of the Cooper Gang jumped a little bit at the sudden remark by someone they thought was asleep.

"So how do we stop her?" Carmelita asked.

"While I was in Penelope's hideout, I constantly heard her say something about a dinner and unleashing a weapon to enslave everybody." Eric explained, "While I was escaping I managed to catch a glimpse of the weapon and if we plan to take that thing down, we're going to need some "help" from Interpol."

"A dinner huh?" Sly said. As if on cue, an envelope was slipped through the mail slot. The envelope was entitled to Bentley. Bentley opened it and was in shock, he pulled out a poster and showed it to the rest of the gang. The poster read: _You're invited to the Science Dinner presented by the International Science and Technology Committee, from 6 pm to 10 pm. You are allowed to bring up to four friends. You must RSVP by Friday, we hope to see you there_. Everybody looked at each other and smiled.


	11. The Weapon

Chapter 11: The Weapon

"Is there any chance that we can see the weapon?" asked Bentley

"The only way to see the weapon is if she tests it in her outdoor testing facility. And even if she does, there is a huge risk of us being captured." Eric replied.

"That's a risk we don't want to take." Carmelita said.

"But it's our only plan that we have, I say we go with it." Sly said. They all finally agreed to go she the weapon in action. They took the long drive to Penelope's hideout and waited behind a hill next to the outside testing facility. After about a week of waiting Penelope finally tested it. The Cooper Gang used their Binocucoms to watch the weapon in action. After the first test, they were all scared.

The weapon was huge, it had a little cockpit made of bullet-proof glass at the top for Penelope to sit in and control the machine. The machine had two arms with large machine guns attached, the guns would fire quickly and had no reload time. Although those were the only two actual weapons, it would be enough to kill anyone Penelope wanted to. The Cooper Gang figured they had seen enough to start working out a plan. As much as they hated the thought, they were going to have to rely on guns. As the Cooper Gang sneaked down the hill one of Penelope's helpers approached her.

"Penelope, the Cooper Gang has been spotted on the right hill." she said.

"I know Veronica, I saw them." Penelope said.

"What do you want us to do ma'am?"

"Let them be, we'll see them at the Scientist's Dinner, and while we wait, we'll add on to the machine, those Coopers won't know what hit them."

"But we're out of money, that's why we needed to get inside the Cooper Vault."

"We'll improvise"


	12. Office Door

Chapter 12: Office Door

The Scientists Dinner was a week away, and The Cooper Gang still had no plan to stop Penelope. They had spent the month coming up with flawed plans. They needed to have a perfect plan, they all knew how smart Penelope was, and if there was any room for error, everyone at the dinner would be Penelope's science slaves. Even if Penelope only got a handful of people, she could still easily take over the world.

Bentley was checking everything for something to break through bulletproof glass. Carmelita was out working, Murray was training in the gym in their hideout, Sly was taking a nap, and Eric was keeping a watch on the place.

"I'VE FOUND SOMETHING!" Bentley yelled, startling the rest of the gang.

"What is it?" asked Eric.

"I hacked into the Interpol website and found that they are getting new guns that are able to break bullet-proof glass."

"Now the question is how are we going to get it? Carmelita is still banned from anywhere near Interpol and Eric has been gone so long that he probably isn't a cop anymore." Sly asked.

"We could just use our usual, dressing as a guard and grabbing a gun. But, according to the website, we all need to go, they're only handing out one per person." Bentley said. Considering it was the only plan they had and the plan never failed before, everyone agreed to do this.

"While we're in there we should get bullet-proof vests." Eric added.

The next day, the gang snuck into Interpol and stole five police uniforms. Carmelita had managed to make her face look different with the use of makeup, a technique she learned as a constable, she then did the same thing to Eric. They all got in line for the guns and eventually got them. They snuck to the closet with the bullet-proof vests and realized that there were only three of them, they still took them and decided to figure out who would wear one of them once they got back to the hideout. While they were going to the ground floor they passed by a door. Carmelita, who was in the back of the group stopped to look at it. Eric, who was right in front of Carmelita turned around to see her standing in front of the door. Eric could tell that it was her old office and that she was upset, he walked up to her and read the door tag. As if to add insult to injury the door tag read "Office of Inspector Winthrop Rosenberg".

Eric turned towards Carmelita and said "Don't worry, we'll get him." Carmelita turned towards Eric and hugged him. Carmelita started crying, Eric didn't know what he was suppose to do in a situation like this. Eric was the reason that Carmelita was fired, but it seemed like she didn't care that he was the one who did it.

"Eric, to be honest, I'm glad you got me fired from this place, I love being with you and the rest of the Cooper Gang." Carmelita said. Eric was shocked, he figured that Carmelita had lost it, with all the stress that they were dealing with, but he felt at this moment, Carmelita needed comfort.

Little did either of them know that Sly was at the end of the hall, watching them.


	13. The Scientist's Dinner

Chapter 13: The Scientist's Dinner

The night had finally come, everything that they had done had been leading up to this one night. If anything went wrong, the Cooper Gang could be killed in an instant. They had seen what that machine could do to a person. After much debating, the Cooper Gang decided that Sly, Bentley, and Carmelita would get the bullet-proof vests. Carmelita however tried to give her's to Eric, but he insisted that she would need it more. The Cooper Gang changed into their tuxedos and hid their bullet-proof vests underneath their shirts. The bullet-proof vest couldn't fit under Carmelita's dress, so they decided to put her vest in Bentley's wheelchair, and when the time was right, she would run over to Bentley and get her vest.

As they were preparing for the dinner Sly pulled Eric aside into another room.

"You excited?" Eric asked as Sly closed the door.

"What were you doing with Carmelita last week." Sly yelled throwing Eric against the wall.

"What?"

"You and Carmelita were hugging at the Police Station."

"Oh, you've got it all wrong she was hugging me, she was sad about getting fired and I told her that it will be ok and she hugged me."

"Did she say anything to you"

"Yeah, she said how she was glad that I got her fired and how she loved being with me-"

"What?!"

"Wait you didn't let me finish."

"I've heard enough!" Sly grabbed Eric and threw him against the door with a loud BANG! Bentley, Murray, and Carmelita jumped. Sly opened the door.

"Is everything ok Sly?" asked Murray.

"Yeah everything is fine," Sly said calmly, "hey Carmelita, can I speak with you."

"Sure." Carmelita nervously walked towards Sly and went into the room. Sly slammed the door shut. Bentley and Murray looked at each other in shock.

"Would you mind telling me what's been going in on between you and Eric." Sly said.

"What? Nothing. What makes you think there is something going on?" Carmelita asked.

"I saw you two back at the Interpol station a week ago."

"You saw this a week ago, and decided to bring this up the morning before the big night?" Carmelita asked.

"Quit changing the subject! Do you two have a thing for each other?" Sly asked.

"No!" Eric and Carmelita responded.

"We can't afford to waste our energy mad at each other, we need to talk about this after the dinner." Eric said.

"Fine." Sly said. They exited the room and continued to get ready, Bentley and Murray didn't dare to ask them what they were doing in there, so hey just went on with their normal business.

Three hours passed, the gang got into the van and went to the dinner. There was a table reserved just for the five of them. While Bentley remained with his own identity, the rest of the gang came as fake identities. They sat down at their table and looked around for Penelope. They eventually found her sitting at a table close to the door backstage. Sitting around her were some of her other scientific partners, including Veronica and Winthrop. By the way Penelope was treating Winthrop, they could tell Winthrop was second in control.

The dinner was served and the Cooper Gang ate, keeping a close eye on Penelope's table. After the dinner was done the workers collected the plates and they began the presentation. While Bentley was finding the entire thing interesting, the rest of the gang were focusing on Penelope. The lights dimmed down for the video presentation. The Cooper Gang had to wait a little while for their eyes to adjust, but when their eyes adjusted Penelope managed to get up and leave through the backstage door.

"She left." Eric whispered to the rest of the Gang. The gang looked at Penelope's table, she was gone. They began to look around, Penelope's goons were surrounding the exits out. Once the video was done, the lights slowly faded back up, and the MC took the microphone and introduced the first nominee for the award of scientist of the year. Each nominee was told to bring their greatest invention. The MC announced Penelope as the first nominee.

"Here we go." Eric whispered.


	14. Man Down

Chapter 14: Man Down

Penelope walked on the stage in her giant robot. The Cooper Gang was in shock to see that Penelope had changed the weapon since they last saw it.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen," Penelope began, "as the first nominee I would like to thank you all for coming... Guards." The guests looked around to see guards armed with batons guarding every exit. "Yes, thank you for being here and I welcome you to my team. Yes, welcome." Everyone looked around confused. "Now, hopefully we can just stay calm and follow my directions. If we just do that, no one will get hurt. Now all the people invited to this event, or the scientists, please stand on one side of the room while the non-scientific friends, or soon to be test subjects, stand on the other."

"Freeze Penelope!" yelled Sly. The Cooper Gang pulled out their guns.

"Oh, hello Cooper Gang, so nice to see you." Penelope sarcastically remarked.

"Stop this and we won't have to shoot you." Carmelita remarked.

"Wait, are those the bullet-proof guns for Interpol?" Penelope asked.

"Yeah, why?" Bentley said.

"Those don't work, I was the one who gave them to Interpol, they are just normal guns" Penelope replied. She turned towards Bentley, "Bentley, you know you don't have to do this, you could join me and be my second in command."

Winthrop jumped out of his seat and onto the table and yelled, "Hey what about me?" Penelope turned towards Winthrop and shot him multiple time, killing him instantly.

"Well, you know what they say... keep your friends close, and your enemies closser." Penelope said. The entire room was in shock, after seeing what Penelope had done to her assistant, they figure that the Cooper Gang would end up the same way. "So what's your answer Bentley?"

"I'll never do it! I'll never leave the Cooper Gang!" Bentley replied.

"Have it your way..." Penelope began to shoot at the Cooper Gang. Murray flipped the table to use as a shield. Murray and Bentley snuck over to other tables and flipped the other tables for people to hide behind. Carmelita motioned to Bentley, she was moving over to Bentley to get her Bullet-proof vest, but Penelope caught her in the middle of two tables.

"NO, CARMELITA!" Eric yelled as he ran towards Carmelita. Eric pushed Carmelita out of the way as Penelope fired the bullet. The bullet hit Eric in the stomach, he fell behind a table and didn't move, he was clenching his wound. His white shirt and hand started turning red from his blood.

"ERIC!" the rest of the Cooper Gang yelled. Sly and Carmelita ran towards Eric, Sly told Bentley and Murray to try and find a way to stop Penelope.

"Eric are you okay?" Carmelita asked. Sly ripped off the sleeve of his tuxedo to use as a pad to try and stop the bleeding. Sly ripped off a strip of the table's tablecloth to keep the makeshift pad there.

"Sly, Carmelita, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all the crap I've put you through. I just want you to know it's been a pleasure being with you, and if I die here, I'll die happy." Eric said in pain.

"Eric, you're not going to die, we won't let you die." Carmelita said, with tears streaming down her face.

"Guys, promise me that if I die you'll stay away from my funeral, I did a lot of inside work for some of your enemies, like Muggshot and Le Paradox." Eric said with a small smile on his face.

"Eric, you're not going to die, Sly we need to take Penelope down!" Carmelita said. Sly motioned to Bentley to come over there.

"Bentley watch over Eric, we're going to take down Penelope, do you have any ideas?" asked Sly.

"When Penelope left me I had a dream about her getting crushed by a..." Bentley pointed to the ceiling above Penelope, "Chandelier."


	15. Chandelier

Chapter 15: Chandelier

"I've done some calculations and that chandelier is just high enough to break the bullet-proof glass and crush Penelope." said Bentley.

"Do you have any idea of how to take it down?" asked Sly.

"According to the blueprints, on the second floor control room there is a cable hidden under the floorboards that holds the Chandelier up." Bentley said.

"Carmelita you and Murray keep Penelope occupied while I go up to the second floor." Sly said.

"Ok, just be careful Sly." Carmelita said. Sly nodded and ran towards the exit. Carmelita and Murray started shooting Penelope. Out of the corner of her eye, Penelope could see Sly running towards and exit. Penelope turned towards Sly and started shooting. Sly grabbed the guard guarding the door and used him as a human shield, against the bullets. The guard fell to the ground and Sly ran out the door. Sly ran up the stairs and made his way to the control room. Sly started taking out the floorboards until he found the cable, he cut the cable.

Nothing happened.

"Sly, have you cut the cord yet?" asked Bentley through their binocucoms.

"Yes I have, has nothing happened?" asked Sly.

"Nope, try looking around for anything that says Chandelier on it."

"On it... hey, how's Eric holding up?"

"Not very well, I replaced the 'pad', twice and he still keeps bleeding, we better hurry up and get him to a hospital, or else he probably won't make it." Knowing that time was counting down until Eric would die and Penelope would capture everybody, Sly ran around the room. Sly desperately tore apart cabinets and filing cabinets looking for something. He eventually came across a small booklet that read 'Emergency Chandelier Protocol'. Sly quickly flipped through the book to a page titled 'Emergency Backup Generator'. The page said that is the holding cable is cut, the backup generator will hold the Chandelier in place. The page also said that the generator is electric. The only way to turn off the generator was to turn off the building's electricity.

"Bentley, tell the rest of the gang to be prepared. I have to turn off the electricity to this place." Sly said.

"On it." Sly waited for a few seconds and ran to the electricity control panel. Sly pulled the master switch, the building went black. There was a loud snap. Quickly following the snap there was a sound of breaking glass. Sly turned the electricity back on, he could hear the screams from the floor below. Bentley came back on the binocucom.

"We got her"


	16. Something I Need to Tell You

Chapter 16: Something I Need to Tell You

Sly walked down the main stairs, people were rushing out of the building. Sly worked his way into the ballroom. Once he walked in, he saw the scary picture. Penelope's robot was crushed, including the glass cockpit she was sitting in. Even though Sly couldn't see Penelope's body, he knew she was crushed, judging by the dark red blood covering the bottom rows of the chandelier. Sly turned and walked to Eric.

The rest of the Cooper Gang was already surrounding Eric. Eric wasn't moving, Sly's heart had skipped a few beats at Eric's condition.

"Don't worry Sly, he's only passed out, he's not dead yet." Bentley said, seeing Sly's reaction. Before the police could get to the scene the Cooper Gang escaped and took Eric to the hospital. The doctors took Eric to the Emergency room. The Cooper Gang sat in the waiting room silent, they were all thinking about how crazy the past year had been.

Bentley was thinking about the night that Eric had pulled him into his office. Bentley had never guessed that Eric would lead them on this crazy journey they had. Even though he had betrayed all of them, Bentley was glad that they had found him again. He knew that they would all be dead right now if Eric didn't endure the torture that he did.

Carmelita was thinking about what had just happened. If Eric didn't take that bullet for her, Carmelita would surely be dead. She was thinking about what had happened at the police station a year ago. She still didn't know what to think about Eric getting her fired from Interpol. Did she like being with the Cooper Gang? Or did she miss the thrill of chasing Sly around the town?

Sly was in the deepest state of mind. Although Sly was never too fond of Eric, that all changed during the past hours. He had taken a bullet for Carmelita, and he knew that it didn't matter who was in the path of the bullet, Eric would gladly take it for them. Eric was tortured by Penelope everyday for seven months, Sly knew that he would break under that kind of pressure. But Eric never did. And at the scientist's dinner, Eric said he was fine with dying. That made Sly even more confused, why was Eric okay with dying?

The nurse had walked into the waiting room and approached the Cooper Gang.

"Well, it looks like your friend is going to live. But he will need to stay here for six weeks and then he can go back with you guys. You can visit him now, he's probably awake by now." the Nurse said. The Cooper Gang walked into the room as Eric was lazily waking up.

"Guys?" Eric said.

"Yes it's us, are you ok?" Carmelita asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But, there's something I need to tell Sly..." The Cooper Gang's smiles went away.

"What is it?" Sly asked.

"My father is the reason your parents were murdered."

_**TO BE CONTINUED...**_

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**Hey it's 54333yi. Thank you for reading "Sly Cooper: The Inside Man". I'm sorry I left this story at this high of a cliffhanger, but I needed to leave it at a place where I can write the sequel. The sequel is...**

**SLY COOPER: RESCUE MISSION**

**"Sly Cooper: Rescue Mission" is a non-traditional fan-fiction (if you want to know what I mean by "non-traditional" just PM me) that follows Sly stealing the time machine to save his parents. But once he gets back to the present, everything has changed. Since Sly never went to the orphanage, he never met Bentley and Murray. The time machine is stolen by a past Cooper Villain. So Sly has to round up the gang to try and get it back, the ones that are alive anyway. Witness the heartbreaking story that tests Sly's emotional endurance and reveals the secrets of Sly's life. Be prepared to cry.**

**Estimated Rating: T (Violence, Brief Gore, Thematic Elements, and Intense Moments)**


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